From Broken Leg to Booming Business: Tim Hulme’s Comeback Story

Andy
You’ll hear about his struggles, his triumphs, and the surprising steps he took to build a business he’s truly proud of. 

Ange
So whether you’re a tradie looking for tips or just love a good comeback story, then stay tuned. You won’t want to miss this.  

Andy
You’re listening to The Tradie Show. This is the podcast for trade business and contracting bosses like you who want to lead with confidence, make more profit, and create a better lifestyle. 

Ange
We’re your hosts, Andy and Angela Smith, husband & wife team and co-founders of Lifestyle Tradie. Are you ready to have some fun?

Andy
Hell yeah!  If you’re a tradie, you know as well as I do, you wouldn’t be able to build a house without a blueprint, right? So why are you trying to build your trade business without one? Come and learn how to build and scale your business properly following a proven blueprint at our free one day live event, Lifestyle Tradie on Tour, where we lay out the exact steps we did to build our multi-million dollar plumbing business. We’ll also show you the systems we put in place that allowed me to get off the tools and only work in the business for two hours per week. This is not just a day of theory and fluff. This is real strategy that we’ve done ourselves. And what we’ve taught to thousands of other trade businesses. We’ll be in a city near you for just one day. So if you’re an ambitious plumber, electrician, landscaper, painter, builder, or any other trade who wants a blueprint to scale your business, then grab your free tickets. Go to lifestyletradie.com.au because you don’t want to miss this.  

Tim, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today. It’s so good to have you here. Absolute superstar guy, and it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun. How are you going mate? 

Tim
Yeah, good guys. Thank you so much for having me here today. I’m looking forward to it. 

Ange
Absolutely, Tim. It’s so amazing to have you here. This is going to be a great episode.

Andy
So Tim, let’s go back to the early days and I want to find out what inspired your decision to pursue a trade from a young age and what work experience did you maybe have?

Tim
Yeah. So ever since high school, I suppose, I always wanted to be doing a trade. I love being outside. I love building things. My dad actually had a building company back in the day, which I’ve washed your clothes just around the GFC. But I just remember going to some of these building sites on the weekends and just walk around, having a look at what’s happening, go to the suppliers and picking up material and things like that, it kind of, Made me want to, yeah, pursue a trade and then obviously through school, we did some work experience and I just gave plumbing, electrical a try and plumbing worked out big on for me.

Andy
So tell me a bit about that because we all know there’s a bit of that plumbers versus electricians, you know, there’s a bit of that banner going on, but what led you to choose plumbing over electrical work? 

Tim
Um, it really came down to the work experience placement I had at the time. So I first tried electrical.

Andy
Yeah. 

Tim
And I was working for a big company called Honeywell.  And they were doing a lot of work in like hospitals, in banks, and it’d rock up to the sites. And then we just go into this dark, dingy room out the back, plug in the laptop, and they were just sitting there looking at error codes all day. 

Andy
Oh wow.

Tim
Um, and I was just looking, I was like, this is not for me. Like looking back, it probably wasn’t the right work experience. Um, So I kind of like pushed the electrical off to the side and then I gave plumbing a go. I was working with a few different plumbing companies doing maintenance and I just had this really cool guy I was working with at the time. He was actually allowing me to be hands on, giving me a go. I was changing tap washers, he was showing me all these different things and I just thought This is cool. This is what I want to do. So since then, I just didn’t look back really. 

Andy
Perfect. 

Ange
So Tim, as I understand it, this is actually your second time around in business, right? So what happened to the first business? 

Tim
Yeah. So during my apprenticeship, my boss actually encouraged us to become a subbie after finishing our apprenticeship. So the day I finished my apprenticeship, it was one o’clock. I was at my first savvy job doing tube outs, they’re running all the pipes in the wall. Alpha was awesome. I was making three to four times the amount of money I was as an apprentice. Life was great. Some of the work I had coming through were like four hundred, eight hundred dollars. I hired mates to help me and we’d go off in the morning, we’d do a set out. So we’d dig all the drains in before the slab got poured. And then we’d shoot off and go do a tube out. And then once that was all running and tested, I would then go and start the next one while they were mudding up. And so I’ve done some long days, if there was still light at the end of the day, I’d go home and start prepping the work for the next day. One stage we had, I was working for five different plumbing companies and worked for everyone. And I was loving life. I thought I had all this money coming in, but my biggest weak point was my admin. I would forget to invoice jobs. I wasn’t even checking to see if I was being paid. And yeah, sometimes I would just find like a work order in the back of the car. I’m like, Oh, I haven’t sent that one off. I better send that off today.

Ange
I remember those days. So did I, did I hear you had an injury? 

Tim
Yeah. So, I broke my leg playing gridiron and the doctor told me I need to have four to five months off work. 

Ange
Wow. 

Tim
Turned out it was closer to six months and that was for me going back on like, geez, I lost all those contracts for those other plumbers and so I just closed the business down and so I just work it out once I’m back to work. So. 

Ange
So knowing that you had that experience and maybe you were meant to, I’m a bit of a believer of fate and I can’t help but think that you were meant to kind of have that experience to open your eyes about business. So that being said, what do you think the key lessons that you learned because you were forced to have this six months off?

Tim
I learned very quickly that I didn’t know a thing about running a business. So during that time off, I tried to claim income protection through gridiron and I had to prove that I was making a steady, consistent income. And then I started looking at my books and I was looking at like, I don’t even know what I’m looking at. So I had a friend come in and help me. And I realized that I wasn’t making the money I thought I was, there was outstanding invoices that were nearly a year old that hadn’t been paid. And the mates I had working for me, I was paying them cash. I was paying like nearly 30 an hour cash. And at the end of the day, I was only making about four to 500 a day myself. And I was doing about four or five hours more than them every day.  And then to top all that off, I had to pay the tax man. And because I was paying them cash in the tax man’s eyes, I was the one earning all the money. So my tax bills were huge. And yeah, I just looked back and I said, I could be working less hours. Less stress, just as much money fun, just do one job a day. 

Andy
Yeah, it’s crazy isn’t it? I mean, I did that as well as went into a bit of a subby role, and I think a lot of people do. 

Ange
And start there, weren’t they? 

Andy
Yeah, and they think, Oh my God, this money’s amazing. But when you, you take into account all the costs of running a business, whoa, geez, it can knock you around when you don’t know your numbers and know what you’re doing.  Can you share a bit of a process and the benefits of hiring, you’ve got Margaret, who’s a Philippine VA and talk about how she has transformed your business operation. 

Tim
Yeah. So when I first started looking into hiring a VA, I was tossing up whether to hire offshore or in Australia. And I kind of just weighed up for me at the time to hire someone offshore, it was going to be about 10 an hour, 25 hours a week. So it’s going to cost me 250 bucks a week. So I kind of just had a look and I was like, All she has to do is save me two hours of admin a week and I’m up. So when she first started with me, I didn’t really have any idea of how to train her. So I just set her up with my account for the first two weeks. She would spend one hour every morning with Canon. She would learn something within Xero. She’d write the process, have a plan around within Xero for the rest of the day. Meet up with her again the next morning and then just review that process of what she wrote and then started getting to learn something new the next day. So that’s the process. And then once she learned Xero, we’ve got the ServiceM8, started doing all the ServiceM8 training in there. And then just, we just slowly worked from there. I wrote a list of different plumbing terminology for her to learn. She had no idea about any plumbing. So yeah, but now she does everything for me. She answers my phone. She does my bookkeeping. She replies to my emails. She orders material for some jobs, quite some jobs, and really just hold me accountable as well, making sure I’m getting back to clients fast enough and things like that. 

Andy
So just tell me, how long has Margaret been working with you now?

Tim
Just over two years. 

Andy
Just over two years. Okay. And how long ago did you start with Lifestyle Tradie? 

Tim
I think I’m four years in, three, three, four years in. 

Andy
Four years in. Yeah. Cause it’s interesting, isn’t it? Because I know a lot of people, when they join us, They, most people that join Lifestyle Tradie sort of go, listen, I understand business. I’m doing okay. I’m pretty comfortable. But then when you actually join, you go, holy shit, there’s so much more to business we didn’t know. And for small one man shows and you don’t have that extra support, you’re like, I need someone to help. And we’ve talked about, you know, VAs and you do talk about in Australia, we talk about offshore. And at the moral stories, you need to find someone you can trust, but you need to spend the time to train them. And this is where a lot of people go wrong. They want what they call a super VA, and they pretty much don’t exist. And they think they can do with everything where even here in Australia, most of them don’t do everything. So the trick is, as most people know, we, we had an office over there with over 500 Filipino VA. So I know how it works, but the top 10 percent are your best. You got to find that top 10%. If you’re not finding a VA that understands and can speak really good English, but also interpret what the customers are saying, that’s the big one because they will say yes, but they don’t always interpretate the right way.

Ange
It’s comprehension, right? 

Andy
It’s comprehension. That’s the word I was looking for. Thanks, Ange. But the comprehension of it all, but you know, we had Philippines running our business, Dr. Drip, normally in after hours and on the weekends and after four o’clock and they did everything. So, you definitely can find them, but what I’m finding a lot of people are diving into getting VAs, and they’re actually, they just want to click their fingers and it’s done. You’re not going to do that. You have to spend a lot of time. You’ve got to spend heaps of time and processes and have the right structures and systems in place for them to follow. And obviously that’s where Lifestyle Tradie helped you along the way. Would you agree with that? 

Tim
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It wasn’t until I came to one of your events and had some advice from you guys that I really took a step back and had a look at what had to be done. Yeah. 

Ange
In four years of being with Lifestyle Tradie, can I ask what have been some of the most significant changes that you’ve actually implemented in your business to feel as comfortable as you do now? 

Tim
Yeah, for me, it was trying to be consistent in everything we do from the moment we answer the phone through to how we leave a job. So we try to have a process on how to flow the job. We have a script on how to answer the phone. When a customer books a job, we make sure that we’re sending booking confirmations, just because my, my biggest pet hate is when you book a tradesman in and they’re on the phone and you’re like, yeah, no, I’ll be there this afternoon or whenever it is. But you can tell that they’re distracted. 

Ange
Totally. 

Tim
And you don’t know, are you actually coming or did you hear me? Yeah. So I think for me, the biggest thing was is communication being consistent, making sure we’re letting the customer know that we’re on our way when we’re coming, some messages and also how we look like making sure we’re wearing a uniform when needs and tidy, we’re actually cleaning up after ourselves. And also the biggest thing was moving to flat rate pricing also made a huge difference to us. 

Andy
Yeah. And a lot of people, when they hear flat rate pricing and some people even listening now, probably going, Ooh, cringe. But the thing is flat rate pricing is just quoting. That’s all it is, but you’re quoting smaller jobs. Now, when you work for a builder, it’s normally a flat rate price. When a builder builds a new home for a customer, it’s normally a flat rate price. So everyone’s doing it, but there was a real stigma around tradies and people doing maintenance work that you weren’t allowed to do that. Or there’s been a stigma around it. You charge too much, but I think the biggest challenge that everyone has is, you know, there’s so many people in the construction game going broke at the moment. And a lot of the times it is mismanagement, but there’s a huge part of that, which is they’ve never ever charged enough and they don’t know what to charge. And getting flat rate pricing, getting the right pricing that you need to make enough money so you can grow and be better at business is where it’s at. And so anyone out there that’s a flat rate pricing, don’t be like that. But what we found in Dr. Drip all those years ago is we knew we were sitting at $97 an hour and I knew I needed to be at about 120, 140. Now this is probably 10 years ago now, 10 years ago to go to 120, 140 and tell people that hourly rate. There is no way customers would have gone with us back then, right? So that’s why we needed to go to quoting and you need to quote. And you need to be able to make significant money enough for you to survive, but enough for you to pay your staff what they deserve and enough for you to run a business and be able to grow. And that’s the best thing. 

Ange
So be profitable. 

Andy
Yeah. So, I mean, anyone that’s ever worked with us that haven’t used it and they do use it, they absolutely love it. But tell me a bit more about why it’s made a big difference for you. 

Tim
I’ve always wanted to do flat rate pricing. It’s always been something in the back of my mind. When we used to charge By now, we want you to tell the customer, we’ll be upfront with that price. We said, we’re charging $120 for the first half an hour and then a hundred bucks every after that. And they were happy, no complaints. But when it came to the end of the job, I felt like that’s when the negotiation started to happen. I felt like that’s good. Come to us and go, Oh, instead of throwing 20 bucks, I’ll give you 300. Or, Oh, you’re here for 10 minutes. Why am I paying for that? So I kind of wanted to get away from all that because it’s kind of leading a bad taste on my behalf about, I don’t really want to work for that customer. They’re nitpicking all the time, or even they don’t feel like they’re getting the value out of me. So we switched to flat rate pricing and It just stopped all those concerns, being able to be up front with the customer. This is what the job’s going to cost. This is what we charge. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes. It doesn’t matter who’s doing the job, whether I’m there by myself, whether I’ve got Adam there by himself, or both of us on the same job, doing the same time, it’s going to be the same price. And also keeping up with the consistency, be able to tell the customer every time we rock up, it’s going to be this price, it doesn’t fluctuate depending on who’s coming or anything like that. 

Andy
So, and you don’t have to worry if the apprentice is there or if you’re there and you don’t have to worry if you might be on your job management system, but they think you’re on your phone or you’re answering phone calls. I mean, all these variables, what happens is the customer, when it’s an hourly rate, they’re watching you like a hawk. And if they see you just walking along slowly, they’re really like, hang on, I’m paying for this money and this guy’s not moving or he’s doing the wrong thing or he’s having a smoke or he’s having a vape or he’s doing like all those things. But when you do it at the front and give them a price, the customer goes, okay, maybe they are taking a bit longer. Doesn’t bother me. I still have to pay the same price.

Ange
So Tim, when you first introduced flat rate pricing, did you get any pushback from your customers? 

Tim
I got a few to be honest, but way less than I thought. I had, um, a few people just wanted to pay me by the hour and not wanting me to quote the job before I started. But I just had a conversation with them and said, I thought we’d do any more. We charge, we flat rates, we charge you per job, doesn’t matter how long it takes us. Doesn’t matter if we have to go to the shops and come back, it’s gonna be the same price. So I think just having those open conversations and explain our reasons why we do it, it just, just made a huge difference. And now that we aren’t getting any back at all. 

Andy
And I will say that was one we, we didn’t talk, I didn’t talk about earlier. Going to supplies to pick up materials. That is one of the biggest pet hates of all customers, isn’t it? You know, crazy, crazy. 

Ange
We definitely see a chat and you know, it’s been around for quite some time, flat rate pricing or upfront pricing so that customers know this price. It doesn’t matter where you are, you know, here in Australia and New Zealand, it’s definitely more acceptable. That’s for sure. So. To your point, Tim, I do believe that if you deliver it with confidence and you know exactly what you’re saying so that you don’t get pushed back from a customer, then by all means, they’ll say yes anyway. So just to change tact, we all understand that knowing your numbers in your trade business is really important. So what strategies have been most effective in achieving financial stability for you about building a business that you’re proud of? 

Tim
For me, it was understanding, like you said, my numbers and actually knowing what I need to charge now, what my breakevens are. What are my overheads and where can I cut the fat out of the business to make more profits? And then once I understood that I started implementing simple profit first. So I know you guys have talked about a lot and I created like a three to six month buffer within my business that like since COVID happened, I just wanted to be able to have money to bank. Okay. Something ever happened.  Once again,  I just I’m sitting there that can cover all my expenses for the next three to six months. 

Andy
That’s cool. And I, and I won’t say the figure, but, um, you did stand up in front of all of our Lifestyle Tradie members and mentioned how much you had in your bank account. And, uh, there was a few eyes like, Whoa, my God, go Timmy.  So that is really good. 

Ange
So I do want to ask though, before you started Lifestyle Tradie, like when you go back to the early days, did you know much about finance? Was this an acumen that you had? 

Tim
No, I just knew I liked money to be honest.  But I think for me, just doing a lot of research and reading audio books and trying to learn about how to run a business joining you guys completely changed the way everything works for me now and now I can’t be happier.

Andy
Yeah, that’s cool.

Ange
Love that sentence. 

Andy
And I will say one thing, you know, you love money, but you also love the party and, uh, we’ve hung out many times, many late nights over in Fiji, you’re an absolute superstar and  I can never go drink for drink with you. That was for sure. 

Ange
I say, you can’t keep up with humanity. 

Andy
Oh, no way. No way in the world. But mate, how have you managed to balance work and personal life, especially considering the long hours you used to work? And What tips do you actually have that you can offer other tradies out there that are facing similar challenges? 

Tim
For me, it was working out what I love doing and what I don’t love doing. So I hate being in the office, chasing out payments or replying to emails. I love dealing with customers and actually having a chat to customers, but the admin side wasn’t for me. So outsourcing what I don’t like doing and actually doing what I love doing was a huge thing for me and not being a yes man. So back then I was very much a yes man. And to be honest, today, if I still answer the phone, if an old lady calls up, say I’ve got no hot water at six o’clock at night, I’m like, oh, yeah, I’ll come down. Even though I know I shouldn’t be coming now, I don’t have time to come now. I’ve got plans this afternoon, but I just, I don’t feel like I can say no all the time. Now I’ve got Margaret answering the phone and I find it easy to tell her.  

Andy
Yeah. And you’ve set the, you’ve set the rules for her. She knows the rules. She can reach out to you and go, I know. 

Ange
Boundaries are important, right? 

Tim
Yes. 

Andy
Yeah. And I think, you know, it’s very easy for us tradies just to work harder and not smarter. And you realize if you just work harder all the time and not smarter, Yeah, there’s sort of money coming in, but it’s leaving just as fast. And the thing that I see in business owners now more than ever, and especially past COVID and all that kind of stuff is that everyone’s just in this limp mode. They’re playing average. They don’t have their foot to the floor. Most businesses don’t even have their foot on the accelerator and they’re just costing. Costing in business, playing average in business is a terrible position to be in. And you’re just waiting for the next big thing to hit you and cause big problems. So you’ve always got to have your foot on the accelerator. Sometimes it’s flat to the floor, baby. And other times you’re, you’re just got it at, you know, low ribs, but you’ve got to always be moving. And that’s really important to be doing that mate, isn’t it? 

Tim
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. 

Ange
So Timmy, what aspects of your business are you most proud of?

Tim
For me, it’s creating a brand that I’m happy with what I’m happy with, but proud of actually just being able to come into work and talking to Margaret and see how her day’s going and see how things can change for her and actually just having a brand that I’m happy with and proud of what it worked for towards and make it better to be honest.

Ange
There is no doubt you are a people person. You have by far one of the humans that has the biggest heart in the world. Uh, so I can completely understand that that’s how you answer that question. That you want customers that love you and that you have an impact in the people around you’s life, which no doubt you exactly have. But what I love is the fact that you’ve really embraced, you know, what business is all about to ensure that you actually need to look after you and that this business needs to be profitable and, and it is for you, which is incredible so that you can evolve and invest and grow and look after the people. So, uh, so yeah, I love that response. 

Tim
Yeah. 

Andy
Yeah. Timmy’s an absolute superstar. So mate, you know, I always talk about at Lifestyle Tradie, bigger isn’t always necessarily better. Now, you know, and I know that most of our members, once they got their structure and their systems, they got everything right, then they’re scaling the hell out of the business, right? But you don’t have to be doing that. And for you, you’re, you’re that, that perfect image of out of control. It wasn’t really running how you wanted it. You’ve got it in there. You’ve got this really good structure. You’ve got money. Things are amazing. And you’re still a pretty small team, aren’t you? But what are your future goals with Houseworks Plumbing? Where do you see yourself evolving and growing to in business? 

Tim
So by the end of next year, I’ve got a plan of having another two or three team members on the road. I really want to improve our systems and processes and just try to do things better than we are today. I want to provide more value to my customers and just be better than I was yesterday.

Andy
Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. And I, how big are you at the moment? 

Tim
So I’ve just got one apprentice maturity apprentice and I’ve got Margaret in the office. 

Andy
Yeah. So you’re still a small business. And why I’m pointing that out is you’re a small business that’s making really good profits and running really great. And you feel amazing, but now you’ve got your structure and your foundations and you understand what’s going on, which we bang on about a Lifestyle Tradie all day long. You’re looking at three tradies next year, right? The beauty of it, you can easily do that because everything is done the same way and then you just need to make sure people are following that. And that’s where most tradies go wrong. They try and grow a trade business on a broken business model. Mate, that is absolute huge advice. You know, you’re an absolute superstar. Thanks for that. And I know everyone listening would absolutely love everything you’ve been saying so far. 

Ange
Well, there is one question I do want to ask that’s going to help everybody, which is if you could give one piece of advice for the tradies who are struggling in business right now. What would that be? 

Tim
There’s several to be honest. Um, but I think the main one would be to get a business coach and a community around you that would help and support you. And just being able to have a chat to someone that’s been through your shoes that it doesn’t have to necessarily be your industry, but someone that’s had a business and can just show you, I suppose, how to run a business. Like we’re not taught how to run a business through our apprenticeship. We’re just trying. We know you had a bit bag hammers.  I do all that stuff, but actually running a business is really hard. So I think having someone in your corner that’s going to help and support you definitely needs to be done.

Andy
Yeah, that’s, that’s huge. And I think the big thing is, and what you’re pointing out there, learn from someone that’s been there and done it before. With an incredible community around them. And I know that’s what you’ve found here at Lifestyle Tradie. We have some of the best trade businesses all around the country. But even just, was it last week, the WA crew, I think it’s about 30 of you, all just got together and caught up for beers and had a laugh and a joke. And having those people around you that Understand the right way to run a business, you just learn so many lessons in the great community that’s wrapped around WA and also around the whole of Australia.

Ange
Do you know what I find really interesting with trade, which I say often Tim is even I go back to, you know, the days of Dr. Drip and this industry is steeped with secrecy. You know, no one talks about what actually happens inside their business. They don’t talk about their success stories because they’re seen as bragging or tool poppy syndrome comes in here in Australia, which is very different globally. And they don’t even talk about their failure stories either. Yet we all tried and test and feel like we can do it all our own way. So I agree with you. It’s interesting when trade business owners join Lifestyle Tradie. One of the things they say to me is, oh, I’m not different. These guys have the same problems as me. It’s like, yes. And they actually will share and open and tell you exactly how to do something. So that’s amazing. It’s great. It’s great to have you as a part of the community and sharing what you’re learning too, because they’re all learning heaps from you. So thank you for being so open. 

Tim
No, thank you guys. And yeah, I’ve learned so much.  So I don’t think I’d be where I’m at today without you guys, so hugely. 

Ange
You’re welcome. 

Andy
So buddy, we play a little game. I’m going to ask you three rapid fire questions. You’re going to have around about 10 seconds or so to answer these questions. Are you ready? 

Tim
I’m ready. Let’s go.  

Ange
He’s buckled in his chair. All right. Question one. What’s one strategy you use to start your day right?

Tim
Getting up early and exercising before work has made a big difference for me, uh, being able to be alert and feeling like I’ve already accomplished something for the day before my, my work day’s even started. And then not having to try and work all that stuff out when I get home.

Andy
Yeah. So you’re putting yourself. Yeah, it is. You’re putting yourself first to getting that done. You know, it’s done and now it’s okay. Let’s get into the work day. 

Ange
Well, it changes your mindset, right? Which is what’s important and clear your head and feel like you can start with a clean slate.

Tim
Yeah. Absolutely. You’ve already copied something for everyone else has already woken up. 

Andy
It’s awesome. Awesome. And what’s something that has made you smile recently? 

Tim
After the last R&R, me and Ben from Beautiful Plumbing. Yes. We’ve gotten together and we’ve made a few, I suppose, videos  about, kind of teasing the other members that didn’t make it to the R&R.

Andy
Yeah, it was so cool. 

Tim
Um,  that was, that was really good fun. I enjoyed doing that. I was a bit nervous at the start, but, um, that whole experience, That was awesome. I even got off and bought my own little speakers and stuff so I can start making my own video creation. So yeah. 

Andy
That’s awesome. And we did talk a lot at the event about doing your own videos and it’s amazing how many of our members are smashing socials at the moment, doing such a good job. But those videos that you and Ben made were incredible. 

Ange
All that particular video, what I love so much was every single one of the, of the Lifestyle Tradie members that were there. We’re all on board with this skit that you guys wanted to do  pushback. I just love it. They’re just all in. All right. Question number three. What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever received? 

Tim
So I have two, one of them is just have a go. There’s no point for sitting back and procrastinating, overthinking  something. Should I start my own business? Can I charge 10, 20 dollars now that I apparently I’m now. Should I put myself out there and make video content, put it on social media?  At the end of the day, if you don’t change, you’re just going to go around in circles and you’re going to have a lot of regrets. But if you give it a good go and put your hand on your heart and say, no, I did give it a go. And if it doesn’t work out, well, shit happens. At least you gave it a go. Learn from it, grow, do better. Next time. 

Andy
Yeah. So many people are just, as we talked earlier, are playing average. They’re bogged down. They don’t know the next steps and they’re not looking for an answer. They’re just doing the same old thing, getting the same old results. So that’s really good advice, mate. 

Ange
Tim, you actually had, you said you actually had two. What was your second one? 

Tim
Oh, second one was shit happens.  

Andy
Fair enough. Shit does happen. 

Ange
Well, that supports the first one, which is so true. Give it a crack. And if you, you know, if you fail forward, which is a good thing and you just go, you know what? I’m proud of myself for having to go and sh*t happens. So pick yourself up off the canvas and have another stab, right? 

Andy
But  at the end of the day, if you want to be in the top 10 or 20 percent in the country for sport, you’ve got to be putting in the hard yards. You’re going to have things that go wrong. And that’s the same in business. You got to put in the hard yards and it’s going to happen as well. Right. So, um, and that’s what makes the elite tradies, the ones that are really having a go so much better than everyone else, because they’re actually having a crack. And that’s the main thing. Hey, Tim, it’s been so good having you on The Tradie Show today. You are an absolute superstar and we really appreciate you. 

Ange
Absolutely. We actually love, as I said before, having you a part of the Lifestyle Tradie community and sharing your journey. You are so fun to have around.

Andy
Ah, yes. 

Ange
Uh, but you are also dedicated to making change inside your business. So what I love is that you’ve got both sides. So bring on, you know, the next R&R where we can hang out and have a bit of a laugh again, together. 

Tim
I look forward to. Yeah. Thank you guys. 

Andy
He’s a 6.4. bundle of fun.  Laughter.  The, the, the one that’s always leading the charge at every party or every bar we ever go to. And, um, I will speak on behalf of all of our members. Everyone loves you, mate. You’re an absolute superstar. 

Ange
Thanks for being here on The Tradie Show, Tim.

Tim
Cheers. Thanks a lot.  

Andy
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